11th July 2007 Archive

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JP Morgan's iPhone Nano report is rubbish

So says JP Morgan

Yesterday's report from JP Morgan that Apple is building some sort of slimline iPhone? It's been discredited. By JP Morgan. On Monday, Reuters leaked news of a JP Morgan report that trumpeted the imminent arrival of a smaller, cheaper version of Apple's new-age smarphone. Kevin Chang, a JP Morgan analyst based in Taiwan, …

Mobile 11 Jul 2007, 00:24
Former ATI chief quits AMD

Leaves a mixed bag of chips

David Orton, former president and CEO at ATI Technologies, has resigned as executive vice president of AMD. Orton, who led ATI's merger with AMD last year, said he will leave the company at the end of the month. "With his integration work complete and the successful launch of key graphics and chipset products earlier this …

Channel Register 11 Jul 2007, 00:41
A serious browser vulnerability, but whose?

Security researchers can't decide whether it's in IE or Firefox

A serious vulnerability that causes Internet Explorer to launch Firefox and execute a malicious payload is sparking debate about exactly who is responsible for the flaw. The vulnerability, which was widely reported on security blogs, allows an attacker to remotely execute malicious code on a machine that is running IE but also …

Enterprise Security 11 Jul 2007, 00:50
Facebook found pimping crudware

Serves up ads for deceptive security software

Facebook has become the latest website to be found pushing services that deliver highly deceptive security warnings designed to trick users into buying software. Purveyors of this scam are making use of Facebook Flyers, small ads that get posted on Facebook pages associated with a specific region. At 5,000 impressions for just …

Security 11 Jul 2007, 01:47
MS Exchange comes to the iPhone

Synchronica offers mail without pushing

Software companies are rushing to supply iPhone users with the functionality that Apple forgot to include. Undaunted by their inability to install software on the handset they have adopted a variety of approaches to making their software work without a client on the device. Take Synchronica, for example. The company's MS …

Mobile 11 Jul 2007, 01:57
Deadline looms for science and tech student awards

Clever? Get your name in the hat

Time is running out for university lecturers to enter their most promising students in the Science, Engineering and Technology Student of the Year Awards for 2007, so if you think you're in with a chance of getting a first and put a decent final paper together, get on the phone to your professor right now. And if you are a …

Science 11 Jul 2007, 06:02
Sun's activity not to blame for climate change

All quiet on the solar front, research shows

People are a contrary bunch. Nothing demonstrates this more clearly than the recent fashion for dismissing global warming as a load of hot air. Indeed, it has become de rigueur to attribute recent increases in global temperatures to something other than human industrial activity and the consequent emission of various greenhouse …

Science 11 Jul 2007, 07:02
'My very first SAN'. Brought to you by Fujitsu Siemens

Storage is for little people, too

Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) thinks storage area networking is for the little guys too. It has drummed up a technology bundle and a marketing slogan - "My very first SAN" - to capture that lucrative, but oh so elusive, small and medium-sized business (SMB) market. Marcus Schneider, FSC's director of infrastructure products ( …

Small Biz 11 Jul 2007, 07:02
Rufus quits Gadspot

Battling tech support thanks El Reg

Battling tech support hero Rufus, who became an overnight internet legend for apparently calling one customer a "pain in the butt" and threatening to "server" him "for being mean", has quit his frontline post at Gadspot.com. After we ran our original story on the outrage, Rufus posted a comment which we intercepted and …

Hardware 11 Jul 2007, 07:50
Tiscali: breaking DNS for fun and profit

Ghosts of typo hijacking past

Tiscali is hijacking mistyped URLs to serve to its customers sponsored links. The ISP started rerouting DNS errors to a page plastered with advertising yesterday. An irate customer has started a thread on the firm's forums criticising Tiscali allowing a third party to pump ads for ringtones and dating sites. Tiscali: helping …

Networks 11 Jul 2007, 07:58
Books for the beach – 10 titles for techies

Get your holiday reading material here

Summer is with us, or at least it should be once the rains stops, and it’s getting to that time of year when we all take the customary two week break away from the stress and the strains of work and the modern world. Trouble is, once we’re away from it, we start to miss it. Well fear not! We at Register Books are well aware …

Site News 11 Jul 2007, 08:02
Gardener offers mouthwatering 'mow and blow' deal

A full service from Jose's Landscaping

California readers looking for a landscape gardener who offers a full service and is willing to negotiate on price were recently pointed in the direction of "Jose Barajas and his gang of six cabaleros!" by one highly-satisfied customer: Sadly, it appears Barajas and his half dozen caballeros are no longer offering the cut- …

Bootnotes 11 Jul 2007, 08:42
ICO names Orange, retail banks amongst data bandits

'Frankly horrifying'

The Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said British chief executives need to take the safety of customers' and employees' data more seriously after a series of breaches over the last year. Launching his annual report Thomas said: "Over the last year we have seen far too many careless and inexcusable breaches of people's …

Law 11 Jul 2007, 08:50
Evesham fires up Zieo NX600-HD gaming notebook

Evesham has expanded its Zieo big-screen notebook range with the NX600-HD, a 17in Sony Vaio-esque model that should play well with gamers. The notebook's 17in WUXGA display provides a 1920 x 1200 resolution and, Evesham claimed, is ideal for HD gaming. Not so movie playback: the desktop replacement only incorporates a dual- …

Reg Hardware 11 Jul 2007, 09:18
Deal struck on the phone is binding, rules High Court

Your word is your bond

An oral contract over the phone is binding, the High Court has ruled in a multi-million pound case which threatened to undermine the way the world of high finance operates. The verbal agreement did not have to be in writing, the court found. An investment fund, Forum Global Equity, agreed a deal over the phone with US …

Law 11 Jul 2007, 09:50
Sebastian Faulks pens Bond novel

Devil May Care to mark Fleming centenary

Brit author Sebastian Faulks has penned a new James Bond novel to mark the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth, the Ian Fleming Estate has announced. The tome - entitled Devil May Care - will be published by Penguin next year to mark 100 years since the 007 creator popped out on 28 May 1908, and promises "action...played out …

Entertainment 11 Jul 2007, 09:52
Xbox 360 Elite to raid Europe next month

At last...

Millions of European gamers have sat patiently beside their old standard Xbox 360s ever since the first official mention of the all-black Elite version waiting for word on when they'll be able to get their hands on one. Now they know - the European launch date is 24 August 2007. Xbox 360 Elite: invading Europe in August …

Reg Hardware 11 Jul 2007, 09:54
Sky hails broadband explosion

Flocking to the Murdoch bosom

The BSkyB juggernaut's plough into broadband shows no sign of slowing, with the announcement today that it bagged more than 250,000 new punters in the last three months. The new lines take Sky's broadband subscriber base to 716,000. BT and Virgin Media each has more than three million, which Sky reckons it will hit in 2010. In …

Networks 11 Jul 2007, 10:04
Albatron reinvents graphics card as Blu-ray booster

Nvidia GPU handles the HD lifting

Here's a novel idea: take a regular graphics card and re-style it as a Blu-ray Disc decoder for machines that already have their own, integrated graphics card. That's what board maker Albatron's done with its latest offering. Not a graphics card, an HD video decoder card, OK? The what-is-says-on-the-tin named Blu-ray …

Reg Hardware 11 Jul 2007, 10:08
HP turns green on data storage

Wants to hang out with the cool kids

HP has introduced what it has dubbed its green storage technology that can cut storage array power and cooling costs in data centers by 50 per cent. The new offerings feature thin provisioning and performance enhancements for the HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) family, tape drives based on the Linear Tape Open …

Storage 11 Jul 2007, 10:15
Sick to death of the bloody iPhone? Click here

Will it blend?

We have some absolutely splendid news today for those among your who are heartily sick and tired of the bloody iPhone - those very silly people down at Blendtec have done the decent thing and stuck the infernal device in the blender: To enjoy the orgy of whirring destruction, have a look here. The iPhone is just the latest …

Mobile 11 Jul 2007, 10:17
Three critical flaws mark July Patch Tuesday

.NET, Active Directory and Excel flaws patched up

Microsoft's latest Patch Tuesday update brought six patches, three of which Redmond described as critical fixes. The critical update covers flaws in Excel, Windows Active Directory, and .NET Framework. All create a possible means for hackers to inject hostile code onto vulnerable systems (remote code execution). Separate …

Security 11 Jul 2007, 10:32
Samsung to launch '€400' Blu-ray/HD DVD player next month

Watch out, Toshiba

Samsung will launch its promised dual-format HD DVD/Blu-ray Disc player in Europe next month, the company has said, and industry insiders are already claiming the machine could be priced at just €400 ($548/£271). Samsung apparently revealed its plan to launch the player, the BD-UP5000, at a recent preview event for the …

Reg Hardware 11 Jul 2007, 10:42
Fast flux foils botnet takedown

Many-headed foe hard to combat

Network security analyst Lawrence Baldwin has helped take down his share of bot nets, but he worries that those days may largely be over. Traditional bot nets have used Internet relay chat (IRC) servers to control each of the compromised PCs, or bots, but the central IRC server is also a weakness, giving defenders a single …

Security 11 Jul 2007, 10:46
Music radio: saved from premature burial

Hang the DJ marketing agency

A startling claim lands on the desk of Vulture Central. Research from London-based marketing agency Frukt raises the verbless question, "Music radio dying?" On the 80th anniversary of the first disk jockey, Frukt had arrived in undertaker's garb and empty coffin - all but ready to take the DJ away, to be boiled down to horse …

Music and Media 11 Jul 2007, 10:48
US man flies 193 miles in deckchair

Hits 11,000ft in helium balloon stunt

An Oregon man has undoubtedly set some kind of record by travelling 193 miles in a flying deckchair, the Bend Bulletin reports. Kent Couch, 47, spent eight hours and 45 minutes travelling from Bend to La Grande suspended beneath 105 four-foot helium balloons, reaching a maximum altitude of 11,000 feet. He admitted: "It's scary …

Bootnotes 11 Jul 2007, 11:08
Carbon emissions - this time it's personal

If last weekend's Live Earth taught us anything, it's that we all need to take responsibility for our combined impact on the environment. Thankfully, monitoring our everyday impact may soon become much more straightforward thanks to the Carbon Hero, a portable carbon-footprint calculator. Carbon Hero (left) and carbon …

Reg Hardware 11 Jul 2007, 11:34
Chinese unleash Caspian Sea Monster

'Wing In Ground' aircraft is go

China today confirmed it has developed a "Wing In Ground" (WIG) sea-skimming aircraft, state media reports. According to Reuters, the Chinese version of the Caspian Sea Monster is capable of flying at 300km/h (180mph) at a mere half metre above the surface while carrying four tonnes of cargo. It relys on the WIG effect effect …

Science 11 Jul 2007, 11:41
Casio cosies up to YouTube

A tie-up between Casio and YouTube wouldn't have been our first guess for an expansion attempt by either of the two companies, but when you think about it, it sort of makes sense. And, hey, Google needs to recoup some of its $1.65bn. The agreement has come in the form of two new Casio digital cameras, the EX-S880 and EX-Z77, …

Reg Hardware 11 Jul 2007, 11:55
Reg hack hypnotised by bouncing boob samba

NSFW Strangely fascinating mobile phone animation

We really are very much obliged to reader James Gauth who pointed us in the direction of this bunch of mobile phone animations down at ringtonezone: So what, we hear you saying - it's just another run-of the mill, albeit jubtastic, flag-based flash. Well, before changing channels in a huff, click here and watch what happens …

Bootnotes 11 Jul 2007, 12:52
Harman Kardon Guide+Play GPS-500

Review Providing directions, or just leading you on?

What more do you want from a GPS unit than the ability to get you from A to B when you haven't got a clue where you are or which way to go? Well, Harman Kardon is hoping that multimedia features will also feature highly on your shopping list as its new Guide+Play GPS-500 also features video and audio playback. The GPS-500 is …

Reg Hardware 11 Jul 2007, 13:02
ST Micro pulls plug on three chip plants

Six inches just ain't enough these days

ST Microelectronics is shuttering three chip plants as part of its effort to ditch aging 6 inch wafer factories and other old production lines. The Swiss-based chip maker is closing its 6 inch wafer fab in Carrollton, Texas, an 8 inch fab in Phoenix Arizona, and a packaging and test plant in Ain Sebaa, Morocco. It has already …

PCs & Chips 11 Jul 2007, 13:56
NEC boffins develop 3D paint, spray it on laptops

For once, worth watching it dry?

NEC designers must have been working overtime if its latest creation is anything to go by: a coloured casing for its LaVie compact notebook with a unique 3D optical effect. 3D glasses not included... or necessary The LaVie G Type L Basic laptop, an expansion to NEC's existing LaVie notebook range, comes with a "snow white …

Reg Hardware 11 Jul 2007, 14:00
Nokia swallows Skype on tablet deal

N800 model coughs up wireless calls

Nokia has made Skype telephone services available via its N800 internet tablet. The telephone maker said in a statement issued today that existing Nokia users will be able to download Skype for the N800 model from its website. Using Skype, N800 customers should be able to make calls where ever there is a wireless internet …

Mobile 11 Jul 2007, 14:02
Bletchley Park opens computing museum

Blighty's cultural computing heritage safe at last

Bletchley Park, where code breaking machines were developed during the Second World War, is to be home to a national museum of computing backed by the British Computer Society and the Codes and Ciphers Heritage Trust. The museum will be housed in Block H of Bletchley Park which was the world's first purpose-built servercomputer …

Hardware 11 Jul 2007, 14:26
Alleged Apple ultra-thin MacBook rumour restoked

Apple's much-rumoured ultra-skinny MacBook Pro sub-notebook has reared its Flash-filled fascia again, this time in a story suggesting the unit will sport a 12.1in screen and less than three-quarters of an inch thick. Apple's 'MacBook Mini'? How it might look Beyond that, MacScoop's report has little to add. Its mole …

Reg Hardware 11 Jul 2007, 15:21
Microsoft rings the changes with Halo 3 Xbox

Another week, another special edition Xbox 360 is unveiled for the gaming community. This time it's a design based on perhaps one of the Microsoft console's biggest-selling game series, Halo. Tough enough to survive a Halo 3 thrashing? Based specifically on Halo 3, which isn't due to arrive in UK shops until 25 September, …

Reg Hardware 11 Jul 2007, 15:32
Greek mobile wiretap scandal unpicked

Olympics-gate dissected

More details have emerged on how Vodafone's Greek network was bugged three years ago to spy on top government officials. To recap one of the most extraordinary wiretapping scandals of the post-Cold War era: eavesdroppers tapped the mobile phones of Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, cabinet ministers and security officials …

Enterprise Security 11 Jul 2007, 16:46
Oracle aims for g spot with Database 11

Will developers be happy as Larry?

Oracle was banging its drum hard today, as it launched version 11g of its eponymous Database product. The vendor may have spent the last three years hoovering up other software vendors, but it managed to squeeze in another 36,000 person months to bring its core database platform up to date. Oracle claims over 400 new …

Developer 11 Jul 2007, 16:49
Microsoft and Cisco play top trumps with exam providers

Prometric and Pearson Vue divvy up the goods

Microsoft and Cisco have been playing tit for tat with rival exam providers Prometric and Pearson Vue. Network giant Cisco today announced a "primary-vendor strategy" by choosing to drop Prometric and retain Pearson Vue as its sole exam provider. Meanwhile, software behemoth Microsoft had already quietly decided to ditch …

Business 11 Jul 2007, 16:52
Microsoft promises VMware beater despite reversals

WPC Blames media, not own, confusion

Microsoft has delivered a spirited defense of its Windows virtualization roadmap, blaming misreporting - not internal disorganization - for causing confusion. Andy Lees, corporate vice president for server and tools marketing and solutions, claimed that recent press coverage saying Microsoft's virtualization architecture wouldn …

Servers 11 Jul 2007, 18:15
Voltaire ponders $100m IPO

The IB switch guys. Enlightenment reformist doesn't need the cash

Israel-based switch maker Voltaire told US federal regulators today it plans to raise up to $100m in an initial public offering. Out of the 7.7 million ordinary shares the company plans to sell, 5.8 million will be offered by Voltaire. The remaining 1.9 million shares will be sold by a group of shareholders. Voltaire has …

Data Networking 11 Jul 2007, 18:27
MySpace succumbs to The Buttock

C'est un éditeur!

The Buttock has successfully sued MySpace for copyright infringement. Late last month, a French High Court ruled that the popular U.S.-based social networking site acts as a publisher as well as a hosting service, making it liable for unauthorized broadcasts of films from the French comedian known as "Lafesse." Yes, that's how …

Applications 11 Jul 2007, 19:35
Scientists need you to organize galaxies

1m star clusters form consternation in night sky

A group of scientists are looking for internet volunteers to take part in what they claim will be the largest galactic census ever compiled. The act of classifying a galaxy isn't difficult. The trouble is there's a lot of them. Scientifically speaking, the universe is ginormous, and computer programs can't hold a standard …

Space 11 Jul 2007, 21:00
Sprint boots 1,000 phone customers for talking too much

So long, annoying people

Sprint-Nextel has terminated the accounts of its 1,000 most-annoying customers. After a recent internal review, the U.S. wireless carrier gave at least 1,000 people the boot because they've been making far too many calls to the company's customer care centers. Of course, the real shocker is that the company has agreed to waIve …

Mobile 11 Jul 2007, 21:04
Microsoft re-assures partners on Vista compatibility

WPC Better all the time

Microsoft has used its annual Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) to stress that it's working to solve stubborn compatibility problems between Windows Vista and partner products. Chief operating officer Kevin Turner told 8,000 WPC delegates that management had "rallied the team" and worked "very hard" after partners and …

Operating Systems 11 Jul 2007, 23:19
Moto says hello to disappointment with Q2 warning

End of Zandr line cheers gloomy investors

Motorola is forecasting another dreary quarter, citing poor sales in Asia and Europe for its lower-than-expected outlook. Meanwhile, Motorola shares have risen almost 3 per cent on speculation that CEO Ed Zander may be ousted under the heat of a new campaign by an activist investor. The company's profit warning today declared …

Mobile 11 Jul 2007, 23:48